Best Practices

Engagement Advice from Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Experience Officer

Cleveland Clinic was the first network to bring a focus on patient engagement to the C-suite by hiring a chief experience officer, Adrienne Boissy, MD. In a recent piece for HealthIT News, she provided some advice for providers looking to improve their patient engagement practices.

Dr. Boissy says that one hurdle for implementation is patients and clinicians’ perception of technology as “harsh, cold and unfriendly”:

You have to address the needs of both sides. There are limits on what the technology can do.

When addressing gaps in patient engagement, it’s vital to ensure that doctors are not distracted or distanced from the patient, whether through entering information into a system or working from a digital distance through apps:

…doctors have some valid arguments against technology, sometimes. EHRs and patient engagement tools often add administrative burdens and disengage doctors from caring for patients. Healthcare executives need to focus on remedies for this. The greatest potential for technology is for it to help clinicians feel more engaged — not less so — with their patients, while helping to artfully engage patients at the same time.